Education

At this morning's NECC keynote discussion Elizabeth Streb noted that students who come to her workshops have time to play before the lessons start but that the line between when play ends and learning begins is very often blurred.  Mitchel Resnick at the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong…

I spent today at EduBloggerCon - a pre-unconference at NECC. At one of the sessions I made that comment that "what goes on in school stays in school”. What I mean by that is that students think that what they learn (or at least what teachers are teaching) doesn't matter outside of…

Back in my college days (last year) nothing inspired me more than a teacher who really got hands on, and especially if they let me electricute them! Well UC Santa Cruz is experimenting with particle physics and taking their findings on the orad to enlighten other schools and excite little pyro's…

Gaming is a large business world-wide, employing many thousands of talented engineers, designers and producers. Where do these people learn their trade? In College! Queensland University of Technology (QuT) has nearly completed the first semester of their Bachelor of Games and Information…

The title of this post is a statement I have heard from teachers, in one form or another, more often than I can count. Often times it feels like people say it to justify boring students out of their minds. Not always of course. And just as often those same teachers do use entertaining techniques,…

The Crucible is an arts education center that fosters the collaboration of art, industry and community. Through training in the fine and industrial arts, they promote creative expression, reuse of materials and innovative design while serving as an accessible arts venue for the public. But even…

You know every so often someone writes a simple blog post that when you read it makes you want to hit your head and say "how in the world did I not think of that?" Vicki A Davis did that today in her Cool Cat Teacher blog. No wonder she is one of the most linked to education blogs around.…

The other week I attended a good sized programming competition at St Joseph's College in Patchogue New York. It was a great event and very well run. There were over 100 high school students in 34 teams representing about 16-18 high schools. I'd love to point you to an online news article about it…

A couple of posts by Cal Teacher (here, here and here) have gotten me moved me to write about something I have been thinking about for a while - making high schools smaller either by a school within a school model or splitting them up. The Gates Foundation among other groups have been pushing this…

A dozen technology enthusiasts led by James Coleridge have left Vancouver International Airport to begin a 30-day summit of Mount Logan in the Yukon, checking 822 pounds of gear across 14 bags. I will be flying out in five hours to meet up with them at the basecamp this weekend. It's been an amazing…